Pakistan
Ordnance Factories Pioneers
in Defence
An
overview of Pakistan’s primary defence manufacturing group.
General
Group
of Industries placed under Pakistan Ordnance Factories Board is in-fact
the oldest, largest and most sprawling complex of defence production units
in Pakistan. This set-up is, therefore, rightly regarded as mother
industry for the entire defence production spectrum. While contributions
of these factories have been abounding for state security since early
fifties, their performance in the last one year was outstanding. POF not
only excelled in attaining higher standards of quality
but also in exports, computerization and technical training of the
work-force. Some of these aspects are briefly covered in the ensuing paras.
Corporate
Culture
POF
has largest reservoir of technical work-force and professional engineers
in the country covering mechanical, chemical, metallurgical, electrical,
and computer fields. These engineers are highly motivated and extremely
dedicated. They have been knit in a cohesive team to meet all the
challenges faced in meeting the production targets given by the Armed
Forces. Punctuality is the hall mark of POF work-force. This is evident
when you see almost 30,000 employees standing at their respective posts of
duties in workers uniform at 0700 A.M. everyday. (Picture-1). Besides,
easy accessibility to POF Top Management specially the Chairman , everyday
at 0730 A.M. in “RABITA HALL”, and on every Friday
in “JAMIA MASJID” and personal attention of the POF
administration to tackle day to day problems faced by the POF work-force,
has converted POF employees into a highly disciplined and contended body
of Mujahids with extreme love for their country and strong faith in
God’s will and destiny. POF, therefore, has today an excellent corporate
culture. Managers are not only trained as administrators but also groomed
as leaders expected to set personal examples which
serve as beacon lights for their subordinates.
Production
Turn-over
Production
turn-over in last one year touched the highest figure of Rs.8.22 billion
unparalleled in the history of POF registering
an increase of 34 % from the previous year. This was mainly possible due
to guidance by the Chief Executive, visionary approach of the POF top
management and whole-hearted involvement of the entire work-force with a
missionary zeal. Last five years turn-over profile is as under:-
Above
outstanding performance would not have been possible without the kind
encouragement by our Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf which is evident
from the following contents of his letter written at the beginning of the
last financial year.
“The
achievements of POF Wah, which are commendable, reflect dedication,
commitment and team work.
Please convey my appreciation to all concerned”.
ISO-9001
Certification
Despite
excellent performance by POF in the last fifty years, it did not have any
international certificate for its quality products. POF top management
signed a contract with M/s AOQC Moody International requesting them to
send their team of experts to assess POF production potential, quality
state, documentation and house-keeping standards. We are proud to say that
after ten months of hectic scrutiny, M/s Moody international readily
awarded ISO-9001 certificates to all fourteen major industries of POF.
Essential details from the report written by Mr. David Embry,
Director M/s AOQC Moody International, are reproduced below: -
(Picture-2)
“I
am delighted to say that POF is one of the finest defence industries of
the world. It is amazing that POF an organization of 33,000 employees, is
being managed effectively and has an excellent technical know-how over a
period of 50 years resulting in production of a variety of Arms and
Ammunition. During my visit to POF, I came across the latest technology
related to defence production. The awareness of POF management to
important advancements taking place in latest technology is
commendable”.
ISO-9002
Certification
Wah
Nobel Group of Companies which are POF subsidiaries with 49% investment by
M/s Bofors of Sweden, were also awarded ISO-9002 certificates by
M/s Tuv Germany. (Picture-3).
Dr. Vianden’s comments were:-
“It
can be said that Wah Nobel Group is one of the best, efficient and forward
looking enterprises in this part of Asia.
The procedure related to various functions of management with
respect to ISO-9002 reflect a harmonious performance in the Group and
comprehension of the system by the management of the Group”.
Besides,
POF subsidiaries were declared amongst the few best top companies for
their excellent commercial activities in last one year. Their all economic
indicators remained positive despite international sanctions and
pressures.
Exports
Achievement
of ISO-9001 certification for quality products of international standards,
POF’s participation in Defence Exhibitions in London, Kuala Lumpur,
(Picture-4 & 5) South Africa. Chairman’s
interviews in the international periodicals like Military Technology,
Khaleej Times, Al-Defyia etc, constant endeavours by our Defence Attaches
in various countries and visits by 41 important international delegations
during last year attracted enhanced attention of international traders to
buy POF produced arms and ammunitions. Resultantly, POF exports jumped
from 21 million US$ to over 30 million US$ in the last year.
Profile of last five years is indicated below:-
Indigenization
In
view of tight foreign exchange situation and unjustified sanctions by the
Western Powers on export of raw materials to Pakistan, POF management
under-took indigenization with an unflinching resolve. Resultantly, POF
saved approx Rs. 477.00 Million Rupees worth of foreign exchange.
Interaction
with
Instead
of expanding POF, the management decided to achieve optimum utilization of
existing plants and register reputed domestic engineering industries as
vendors in order to utilize their assets for manufacture of various parts
of arms and ammunitions. In this context, Chairman POF Board inter-acted
with Chamber of Commerce Gujranwala, Lahore and Federation of Pakistan
Chamber of Commerce and Industries Karachi (Picture-7) and decentralized
some of the production work to various engineering industries in Pakistan.
This enhanced interaction between private and public sector has created
better environment for indigenization and utilization of POF surplus
capacity of plant and machinery for civil production.
Contribution
to discourage illicit trade of arms and ammo
1.
Ist government directive to stop illicit trade of arms and ammo was
issued in early seventies. Thereafter, numerous studies were carried out,
however, till to-date no solid viable strategy could be evolved in
this context. Present government has shown its resolve to get the society
cleansed of arms smuggling menace. The government, therefore, took firm
decisions to:-
a.
Give stern warning to the holders of unlicenced arms to deposit their
illegal weapons forthwith.
b.
Stop issuance of licences for prohibited bores.
c.
Permit POF management to take appropriate steps to encourage Dara arm
manufacturers to join country’s main stream arms production industry.
2.
The Chairman POF Board visited DARA along with a team of armament
experts on 5th Oct, 2000.
(Picture 9&10). As a
result of this inter-action, DARA Arm manufacturers gave their undertaking
not to manufacture automatic weapons provided their financial difficulties
were alleviated. Chairman POF Board promised to consider following
aspects:-
a.
Enrolment of some experienced DARA Adam Khel arms manufacturers in POF
after desired scrutiny and in line with prevalent government rules.
b.
Opening of POF Branch for mainly shotgun manufacturing
at Peshawar in which DARA Arms manufacturers will have priority for
employment. This will be part of POF commercial pursuits under Wah
Industries Limited (WIL) as
per the officially laid-down charter of duties of this company and
approved by the WIL Board of Directors.
c.
Requesting Ministry of Interior to lift ban on licences for sport rifles
(shotguns).
d.
Requesting government to give special quota for DARA in Overseas
employment.
e.
POF management to facilitate DARA Adam Khel Arms manufacturers linkages
with private / public sector Engineering Industries in Pakistan for
registering DARA manufacturers as vendors for the manufacture of medical
instruments, sewing machines, cycles
and various other spares of tractors and vehicles.
f.
Training of Craftsmen from Dara Adam Khel at POF Institute of Technology.
Computerization
Although
some of the machines / plants
in POF are state of the art and fully computerized yet major portions of
these machines are old vintage and labour intensive. To improve functional
efficiency of POF, enhance production, curtail over-heads and reduce
rejections, POF has decided to undertake computerization. (Picture-11) IBA
teams headed by Dr Syed Irfan Hyder are constantly monitoring and studying
our systems for the last six months to prepare a final blue print along
with its cost effect which should suggest a balanced strategy to achieve
an optimum blend of available cheap labour and modern computers which can
be utilized for accounting, administration / establishment matters,
hospital requirements and inventory / documentation etc to achieve ideal results in
minimum possible time. Inputs on network solutions ,would be available
with us from the five most competent specialists in the country in this
field by the 20th Oct 2000. This will be followed by similar inputs from
specialists in other specialities that comprise this project, namely
software development/implementation, hardware and integration. The current
contract with M/s IBA will also give a better insight to POF into the
costs, and into the required project resources.
Technical
Training
POF
existing technical training institute has recently been upgraded to the
level of a Poly Technical College and renamed as Pakistan Ordnance
Factories Institute of Technology (POFIT). This institution is now
covering five major disciplines including mechanical, chemical,
metallurgical, electrical and computer fields. This institution has been
opened to all national and international students for admission as per
laid down merit and criteria. First year sessions are already in progress.
To internationalize this facility, we have also offered technical training
courses to various countries in South Asia, South East Asia and Africa. A
group of students from Myanmar is expected to arrive shortly for a basic
training of about 4-6 weeks.
Academic
Facilities
Wah
is known as a city of colleges and schools where over 70,000 students are
studying in about 98 educational institutions (both government and
private) and the literacy rate here is
over 95%. POF management has recently upgraded WSSO Mashal Girls Degree
College to a Post Graduate
standard, started classes for FSc and allowed B.Ed classes to be run which
has already been approved.
Welfare
Measures
POF
is perhaps the only set-up which takes maximum care of its employees. The
existing 9.4 K.M. two way road was a death trap for the school going
children, old ladies visiting POF Hospital and the cycled influx of
work-force plying on the road. Resultantly, the average casualties
registered in POF Hospital every year were over 1,000 injured and about 50
deaths. The road in question has been dualized (Picture-12) in the last
one year providing separate services / cycle track for cyclists, footpaths
for pedestrians, traffic signals to control the speed and green belt on
both sides of the road with suitable plants for the uplift of the road
which is used by numerous national and international delegations almost
every`day. This has drastically reduced the casualties and we had only
five death cases during last year. Besides, problems of low paid workers
living in Gulistan and Lala Rukh colonies, outstanding for the last
fifteen years, have been resolved in the last one year by getting their
interests written off and providing them possession of the land allotted
to them.
